Two Michael J Fox awards for UCL Parkinson's research

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ion.ucl.ac.uk/" target="_self">UCL Institute of Neurology

The Michael J Fox Foundation

Two teams at the UCL Institute of Neurology have received grants from the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research.

The Foundation's Rapid Response Innovation Awards are given in support of high-risk, high-reward projects aimed at tackling some of the major obstacles to developing therapies for Parkinson's disease. Grants are made on a rolling basis, with decisions taken within six weeks of the submission of applications. Eighteen such awards, to institutions all over the world, have just been announced, including two at UCL.

Drs Henry Houlden and Coro Paisan-Ruiz applied for funds for a study on 'The Glucosylceramide Pathway in Parkinson's Disease and Other Synucleinopathies: Genetic Defects, Neuropathological Characterization and Cell Culture Models'. The application from Dr Patrick Alfryn Lewis and Professor John Hardy was entitled 'A Novel Cell Model for LRRK2 Parkinson's Disease'.

Parkinson's disease affects about 120,000 people (one in 500) in the UK. It is hoped that both UCL studies will yield results that will soon have an impact on the treatment of the condition.

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